Volume L, No 3, July-September 2012 - Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Byron Fidetzis, Mikis Michaelides, Miltos Logiadis
and Alkis Baltas). Simos appears regularly in European
Opera Houses (Deutsche Oper am Rhein,
Oper Frankfurt, Staatstheater Mannheim and Sofia
National Opera). His career highlights include collaboration
with artists such as Anna Tomowa Sintow,
Maria Guleghina and Agnes Baltsa, and with
stage directors such as Dietrich Hillsdorf, Christof
Loy, Graham Vick and Giancarlo Del Monaco. Simos
has recorded music by Massenet, Kalomoiris,
Karrer, Samaras, Mitropoulos and Theodorakis.
Since October 2011 he has been the Deputy Stage
Director of the Greek National Opera. He teaches at
the Ethnikon Odeion and at the Odeion Athenaeum.
Kyros Patsalides – Baritone
The baritone Kyros Patsalides,
one of the most
important Cypriot artists
of his generation, enjoys a
distinguished international
career. After completing
studies in Law at the University
of Athens, he studied
Singing in Vienna under the guidance of baritones
Walter Berry and Gottfried Hornik on a scholarship
awarded by The Music and Fine Arts Foundation of
Cyprus. Patsalides also studied Lied and Oratorio at
the Music Academy of Vienna; he studied operatic
repertoire with Adalberdo Tonini and singing technique
with Arrigo Pola and Simone Badi in Milan
and Modena. In 1995 he won the 1st prize in the International
Song Competition of the Budapest State
Opera. Patsalides’s repertoire includes roles from
classical, romantic and contemporary operas and
oratorio, and he regularly appears at major theatres
and international festivals, including Vienna State
Opera, Teatro Filarmonico dell’Arena di Verona,
National Opera of Greece, Vienna Musikverein and
Konzerthaus, Berlin Konzerthaus, Athens and Thessaloniki
Megaron Halls, Wiener Festwochen, Due
Mondi-Spoleto, Athens International Festival and
Wratislavia Cantans (Poland). As a soloist he has
collaborated with the Berlin Symphony Orchestra,
St. Petersburg Chamber Philharmonic, Virtuosi di
Moscow, Orchestra dell’Arena di Verona, with all
of the important orchestras in Greece and with the
Cyprus Symphony Orchestra. Patsalides has been
honoured by a number of political and cultural institutions
for his contribution to musical life in Cyprus.
Cyprus Youth Symphony Orchestra
The Cyprus Youth Symphony Orchestra was founded
in 1987 as Cyprus State Youth Orchestra – since
2007 the Cyprus Youth Symphony Orchestra has
been managed by the Cyprus Symphony Orchestra
Foundation. The Orchestra gives concerts in Cyprus
and abroad and participates regularly at official
events and anniversaries. The annual International
Summer Music Academy is an extremely important
part of the Orchestra’s activities. It takes place
in Pedoulas village with the participation of young
musicians and distinguished professors from Cyprus
and abroad. The final concerts of the Summer Academy,
in 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2011, were given as
part of the International Kypria Festival. In 2010 the
Orchestra participated with great success in the First
International Youth Orchestras Festival in Constantinople,
Cultural Capital of Europe 2010.
World Youth Choir
The World Youth Choir (WYC) is original in its
concept. The Choir brings together talented young
singers aged 17-26 from all over the world each
year. Since its establishment in 1989, the WYC has
established itself as one of the most remarkable musical
and intercultural experiences offered to young
musicians; the Choir meets annually for intense rehearsals
followed by an international concert tour.
The diversity of the Choir’s conductors and its repertoire
reflects the cultural diversity of its singers.
The WYC is a project of the World Youth Choir
Foundation, which counts among its patrons the International
Federation for Choral Music, the European
Choral Association-Europa Cantat and the Jeunesses
Musicales International. In 1996, UNESCO
honoured the WYC by naming the Choir an Artist
for Peace, recognising the WYC’s success as a platform
for intercultural dialogue through music. The
WYC participated at the Nobel Peace Prize award
ceremony on 10 December 2011 and the Nobel
Peace Prize Concert held in Oslo on 11 December,
the annual musical tribute to the year’s Nobel Peace
Prize laureate.
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